UDAN: Five airlines win bids to fly on 128 routes

New Delhi, March 30 

Five airlines, including an Air India subsidiary and Spicejet, today won bids to operate on 128 routes connecting 70 airports of which 31 are un-served under the regional connectivity scheme where fares are capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights.

Air Odisha Aviation got maximum number of 50 routes followed by Air Deccan (34) and Turbo Megha Airways (18). The AI subsidiary, Airline Allied Services, would operate on 15 routes while SpiceJet won bids for 11 routes.

The first flight under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is expected to start next month, Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey said.

As many as 70 airports, including 31 un-served and 12 under-served ones, would be connected with the UDAN flights.

Announcing the names of winning bidders and the routes, Choubey said 128 routes are being awarded to a total of five operators. The carriers will operate 19-78 seater aircraft.

These flights would connect airports spread across over 20 states and UTs, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The airports that would be connected under UDAN include Bathinda, Shimla, Bilaspur, Neyveli, Cooch Behar, Nanded and Kadapa.

On each flight, 50% of the seats would have a cap of Rs 2,500 per seat/hour, Choubey said.

Under UDAN, the operators would be extended viability gap funding — for which money is partly raised through a levy of up to Rs 8,500 on flights operating in major routes like Delhi and Mumbai. — PTI